Tag: southern environmental law center

Last Friday the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia denied Dominion Virginia Power’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Sierra Club, over the illegal contamination of the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River with harmful coal ash waste from the Chesapeake Energy Center.

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a brief yesterday on behalf of Roanoke River Basin Association and Dan River Basin Association that weighs in on an industry challenge to Virginia’s 33-year-old statutory ban on uranium mining.

Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Greg Buppert testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources on Wednesday on the failure of the proposed National Energy Security Corridors Act to account for the significant impacts that natural gas pipelines crossing federal lands would have on the surrounding local communities and private property.

Today Dominion Virginia Power announced it is planning to develop 400MW of solar power that will be operational by 2020. Dominion anticipates that these solar projects will be capable of powering 10,000 homes at peak capacity.

The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing the Sierra Club, sent notice to Dominion Virginia Power of their intention to bring suit under the Clean Water Act to clean up leaking coal ash pits at the Chesapeake Energy Center (CEC) on the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River in Chesapeake, Virginia.

A coalition of 22 organizations from across Virginia and West Virginia has formed the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance in response to the September 2 announcement of the proposed 550-mile natural gas pipeline from Harrison County, W.Va., to Robeson County, N.C.

Opening up the Mid and South Atlantic coast to risky oil drilling is ill-advised, according to comments submitted this week to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management by 27 citizens groups regarding the government’s proposed 2017-2022 leasing of the Atlantic Coast to oil companies for drilling.

Today Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order to establish a Virginia Climate Change Commission to proactively develop a comprehensive plan to protect Virginia’s communities from the impacts of climate change. Southern Environmental Law Center’s Cale Jaffe, director of the Virginia office, was selected to join the nonpartisan advisory group.

A new report from the Southern Environmental Law Center on Virginia’s Public-Private Transportation Act, under which billions of taxpayer dollars are being spent and decades of substantial tolls imposed, warns that the law lacks adequate safeguards to protect the public interest.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today denied requests from numerous industry groups and their allies that sought to halt regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency to control greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles and power plants and other large sources. The EPA rules include an “endangerment” finding, which confirmed that carbon dioxide and other pollutants contributing […]

Housing affordability is a critical challenge throughout Virginia—a challenge heightened by the recent recession and continuing economic turmoil, as well as problems with transportation and sprawl development, according to a report released today by Housing Virginia and the Southern Environmental Law Center. In addition to examining these problems, the organizations outline a range of practical, […]

Edited by Chris Graham freepress2@ntelos.net The U.S. Minerals Management Service announced today that it is postponing indefinitely the public-comment period and the public hearings that were scheduled in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina in the coming weeks on the proposed sale for oil and gas drilling off Virginia’s shore.

Edited by Chris Graham freepress2@ntelos.net Following a 2007 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation today jointly issued a final rule on curbing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from light-duty vehicles, which contribute about one-fourth of America’s share of the world’s climate-change pollution.

A permit for a 585-megawatt coal-fired power plant under construction in Wise County, Virginia violates Clean Air Act regulations for carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution, one of the main contributors to climate change, says a coalition of environmental and clean energy groups in an appeal sent today to the Court of Appeals of Virginia.

The Top Story by Chris Graham freepress2@ntelos.net You know, considering how much a gallon of gas is costing us today, and how dramatically much less we’re driving these days, maybe it’s not such a bad thing that our General Assembly left Richmond last month once again without having come up with a solution to our […]

Item by Chris Graham freepress2@ntelos.net The Richmond and Northern Virginia-Washington, D.C. metro areas are among the top 15 metro areas in the country with the highest levels of carbon emissions per capita, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Brookings Institution. But that’s not the rest of the story regarding carbon footprints.